Crawley NES: Forge Wood

Since outline planning permission was granted in 2011, PFA has acted as Lead Highway and Drainage Consultant to Persimmon Homes and Taylor Wimpey on Forge Wood, in the north east of Crawley.  Forge Wood is the newest of the 14 neighbourhoods at Crawley, and is being built over four phases.  When complete, Forge Wood will have up to 1,900 homes built around a central community space, which will include a primary school, community centre, office and industrial space, retail space and parkland.  The first residents moved in during 2015, and by December 2019 in excess of 700 households were occupied.

The scope of work has covered 14 off-site highway junction improvement schemes, including trunk roads, A-roads, local roads and cycle routes plus the on-site common infrastructure to serve the four phases of development, including roads, drainage, flood compensation, pump stations, SuDS and street lighting.  We have also been retained on some of the development parcels themselves including designs for residential roads, private drainage, surface finishes, and street lighting. 

This lead role has required the Company to negotiate with Highways England, Environment Agency, Network Rail, West Sussex County Council (WSCC), Crawley Borough Council and attend Public Consultations as the Consortium’s Engineering Consultant. 

Given the scale and complexity of the project, PFA Consulting recognised from the outset the need to establish good working relationships with the authorities referred to above, and thus regular progress meetings were put in place with WSCC.  Those meetings enabled both parties to prioritise and resource their work as the approvals and subsequent construction works demanded.

Once the project entered the construction stage, PFA Consulting have provided an engineering support service answering site queries, and preparing As-Built plans. The Company’s continued involvement in this project has meant that it has become the “go-to” contact for engineering information, which in turn has meant the Consortium has a sound reference point in place to support the ongoing construction works.

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